Theresa May’s Manchester conference address will be remembered as the one where she was handed a P45 mid-speech and had a coughing fit before the letters started falling off the sign behind her.

But the speech was loaded with messages to her party and the country. It was an attempt by a Prime Minister who went for a snap election that vaporised her party’s majority to convince Conservatives she should stay in the top job.

She pledged to dedicate the rest of her time in office to working to ensure that each new generation will be better off than the one before it.

The Prime Minister talked about her family history and her sadness at the lack of children – and made a pointed joke at former Chancellor George Osborne’s expense.

Her determination to finish the speech won the respect of Tories in the conference hall. The polls will soon show whether the country wants her to stay in Downing St.

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1. She explained why she has not quit.

Theresa May arriving to make her keynote speech (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Mrs May said: “[When] people ask me why I put myself through it – the long hours, the pressure, the criticism and insults that inevitably go with the job – I tell them this: I do it to root out injustice and to give everyone in our country a voice.”

The Tory leader told the conference that the “test of a leader is how you respond when tough times come upon you” but that “our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless”.

2. The PM spoke about childlessness and dedicated the rest of her time in office to ‘restoring hope’ between generations.

The Mays hugged at the end of the speech (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Mrs May said: “It has always been a great sadness for me and Philip that we were never blessed with children. It seems some things in life are just never meant to be.

“But I believe in the dream that life should be better for the next generation as much as any mother, any father, any grandparent.

"The only difference is that I have the privileged position of being able to do more than most to bring that dream to life, so I will dedicate my premiership to fixing this problem, to restoring hope.”

She announced plans to invest an additional £2bn in affordable housing in England and to get “government back into the business of building homes”.

A key concern is that while 59% of 25-34 year-olds owned their own home a decade ago today the figure is just 38%.

Mrs May also confirmed that a “major review” of tuition fees in England will take place.

3. She joked about George Osborne allegedly wanting her in his freezer.

4. She shared her family history.

Mrs May used the story of her own family as an example of the “British dream” in action.

She said: “My grandmother was a domestic servant, who worked as a lady’s maid below stairs. She worked hard and made sacrifices because she believed in a better future for her family.

“And that servant – that lady’s maid – among her grandchildren boasts three professors and a Prime Minister.”

Describing the “dream of progress between the generations”, she said: “To renew that dream is my purpose in politics.”

5. The Government will press ahead with plans for a price cap on energy bills.

An energy price cap is coming (Image: PA)

She said: “We will always take on monopolies and vested interests when they are holding people back. One of the greatest examples in Britain today is the broken energy market.”

6. She says the future of mainstream Conservatism is at stake.

Mrs May presented Jeremy Corbyn as a threat to the country (Image: PA)

The PM told the audience: [We] must come together to fight for this mainstream Conservative agenda, to win the battle of ideas in a new generation all over again, for those ideas are being tested and at stake are the very things we value.”

Urging the party to rally to stop Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn winning support for his vision for the economy, she said: “[There] has rarely been a time when the choice of futures for Britain is so stark, the difference between the parties so clear.”

7. She is preparing for what happens if there is no Brexit deal.

She wants a Brexit deal - but she knows she may not win one (Image: Getty Images Europe)

She said: “It is our responsibility as a Government to prepare for every eventuality. And let me reassure everyone in this hall, that is exactly what we are doing.”

8. She says voters have said No to a second Scottish independence referendum.

Theresa May said she was proud to describe herself as a unionist (Image: PA)

Mrs May said: “[As] a proud unionist, I take comfort that the general election saw the threat of nationalism set back, the case for a second referendum in Scotland denied.”